Honouring lost loved ones

We have a memory table....wih a candle and photos of our parents who are no longer with us. I also have memory charms which were made for my bouquet and I have some of my dad's ashes in a locket that will be discretely sewn in my dress so he can walk down the aisle with me. There will be a toast in the speeches too. It is very important to us to involve those we miss dearly.

I had this bouquet charm of my dad:

And we had this on the table where he would have been sitting had things been different:

My husband also wore my dad's pocketwatch, which had been passed down from my great-grandfather.

These are mine for my bouquet. They are really beautiful and so well made by Beatrice Belle who can be found on facebook.

I also have a memory charm from Beatrice Belle, she is amazing, it's a lovely way to have a lovely one with you on the day! We were also thinking of having a candle which we could light during the day! Not sure exactly, where/when but possibly on the cake table and lit during the speeches. I wanted my mum to be remembered during the day without it turning into something really sad. Xxx

I looked at bouquet charms too but in the end I just wore my Nana's ring, my grandma's earrings and had the sixpence in my shoe from the year my grandparents got married. Using jewellery may not work so well for male relatives though

First of all, I'm sorry for your losses and it's lovely that you want to remember them during your big day.

I like the idea of photos in one of those multi-photo frames or something like this (I also love the poem on this one):

I was also thinking about having a tree with tags hanging off that could have names of loved ones along with messages from those who cannot be there for other reasons (I think they used to have telegrams for this? I seem to remember someone calling them that at a wedding I went to a few years ago) but I've dropped the idea for now, although I will probably bring it up with OH closer to the time as, sadly, he's lost quite a few people from his life. Something like this:

I would probably have it sat at the front of the church and then brought to be on it's own little table somewhere in the venue.

My third idea is to have a really nice vase full of flowers without names or anything but just the poem above written with it to show we are remembering people without being too specific.

What lovely ideas!

Do you know who wrote the poem?

Neither of our dads are around this time, but I don't want to not have anything to do with them on the day, so thinking of putting their photos on a table (with other bits and bobs) at the door of the main hall so they kind of greet guests on arrival at the reception

If you're meaning mine, then I'm afraid not... it's a Pinterest find. I prefer it to the "We know you would be here today, if heaven wasn't so far away", but that's probably because the latter is EVERYWHERE

We had a photo frame with pics in and also had a few items on the table with the frame to remember them with.

My grandad- a pack of hamlet cigars

sister in law- a candle which came from her flat

H's godfather- a bowler hat (he used to wear on boating holidays with H)

i think its a really personal thing and there's not a right or wrong way of doing this. If you do lose your dad so close to your wedding you may want to leave an empty seat for him

*hugs*

I'm trying to think of ways to remember my Dad, some of these are lovely ideas

Love this